The Lairds view on Fuel Free's Firmware

For what it is worth, here is my recent dealings with FFM…

2014-02-12 21:06 GMT+00:00 Martin Winlow
Hi,

I have a 2008 Vectrix with a Runke charger that was installed about 10 months ago. I am in the middle of upgrading the battery pack using 42 cells of Sinopoly LiFePO4. I have a Elithion Lithiumate Lite BMMS installed as well as a small Windows PC to provide instrumentation and remote access to the bike via wifi and GSM. Some months ago I upgraded the headlight to HID – bi-xenon which has worked fine but makes the high and low beam warning light blink.

I am interested in a replacement firmware that will allow me to remove the 30Ah charge limit to get the most out of my new 40Ah cells. I would also like to be able to do a balancing phase at the end of the main charge at 150mA which is low enough for the Lithiumate BMMS to cope with without cycling the charger power on and off. It would also be nice to get rid of the flashing hi/low beam warning light.

I have a PEAK CAN cable and scooterdiag software and have already updated the charger and controller software when I installed the new Runke charger, so it all works fine.

Are you in a position to help?

Regards, Martin Winlow.

Their response…

13 Feb 2014 1324 hrs
Hi!

Many thanks for your e-mail.

Our services are just available physically. We are not able to help throught the internet or something else.

About the upgrades people are making a lot of mistakes, but they will prove it.

Where are you from? UK? We have come persons from France interested on our services and we are scheduling a trip...

If you want the premium firmware, the only way to get it is buying a charger from us. We are also developing a firmware for persons like you (outside portugal) to configure maximum voltage for the battery on-the-fly without need of canbus cable. This will allow everyone to install the battery pack they want. Also the BMS people are using are not prepared to be used in a Vectrix.

Best Regards,
FuelFree Motos Team
FuelFree Motos
Comércio e Reparação de Scooter's Eléctricas
www.fuelfreemotos.wordpress.com
Contacto: +351 92 320 69 56
E-Mail: fuelfreemotos [at] gmail.com
Algarve: Rua Passagem de Nível - 4 Estradas (Loulé)
Caldas da Rainha: Estrada N361 - Santa Susana (Landal)
International Page: www.fuelfreemotos.wordpress.com/international/

Martin,

I'm not a Vectrix owner, but I do have experience with a few different Chinese LiFePO4 packs on other scooters.

Assuming that you BMS will switch the charging current to the lower balance rate and stay there, it is going to take a very long time to complete the charging. The internal resistance in the cells is high enough that at a 10 amp or higher charging rate, the cells hit the switching voltage (3.7 volts or so) while still a few percent below fully charged - worse in cold temperatures. So the last few percent of charging will take a long time at just 150ma. The best charging setup is to throttle the charger down gradually as the cells hit the switching voltage and the BMS's current shunts start cycling rapidly on-off. This provides the quickest balance-charging while also providing the ideal CC-CV charging protocol. But If your BMS does not have this capability, use as high as balance charging current as the BMS can take. Hopefully this is at least 500ma.

The latest creation of Jmal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEa59WM7my0&feature=youtu.be

Sorry but it looks like he is just using mismatched firmware for motorcontroller and charger. When this is done you get the main display showing essentially battery voltage and under high deceleration it drops. I had this a couple of years ago by accident and installing the correct firmware code fixed it.

Sorry but it looks like he is just using mismatched firmware for motorcontroller and charger. When this is done you get the main display showing essentially battery voltage and under high deceleration it drops. I had this a couple of years ago by accident and installing the correct firmware code fixed it.

Hi!
No it's not.

It's the dual-display technology we use to know the power consumption...two outputs are given to the rider!

BTW, the premium firmware from FuelFree Motos is getting even better...first tests charging at 13Ah:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2HpkuTetPo

More to come soon...

The Limited Edition Vectrix will be unique around the world and only available through FuelFree Motos...

This video can show how powerful this vectrix is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyt7MBOqF4M

We make a lot of modifications...Our Vectrix's are really different from standard one's...

Best Regards

What does that video show? All I see is a blurry right-side blue dial on a moving bike at night. Is there some read-out I am not seeing?

What I saw was a brief burst to high speed (could not see what exactly, too dim) and some acceleration, again, unclear if that is any different from standard VX-1. The blue dial is unreadable - just a blue light... Hope the software is better than the video ;)

Hi Everyone!

Just came here to post some news... =)

Well, after a few months (almost a year) working on the Runke charger, we finally had been able to successfully change the Runke charger!

So, our Premium Firmware is finally available to any Vectrix Charger (ESD and Runke) without any restrictions... ;)

Hope this time everybody could understand we work by ourselves and we do not use anything from the others.

Best regards,
FuelFree Motos Team
www.fuelfreemotos.wordpress.com/international/

"So, our Premium Firmware is finally available to any Vectrix Charger (ESD and Runke) without any restrictions... ;)"

Can you please PM me re obtaining this firmware for my 2008 Vectrix VX-1 with Runke charger now upgraded to 40Ah LiFePO4 (Sinopoly) cells and LithiumateLite BMMS.

Hello :)

Sorry for "upping" an old post, but I could start a new thread :)
I want to allow cruise control on my leaf converted vectrix. What should I do?
I do have the can-usb adapter and I did update the firmwares, but those were original firmwares from vectrix.
How can I install custom firmware? I've already searched through the forum, but this topic was the closest one to my question.
Any help appriciated!

Thanks! :D

I seem to remember going into some detail on the subject in my thread about doing the leaves upgrade to one of my Vectricies. Probably not supposed to pluralize either of those words. I used the Dugas Engineering software on my bike. I had good timing doing it, before I did my upgrade it was a pay for thing, when I went it was a free download. Now the links to Vectrix Support are gone and the banner just reads Please Call. Let us know what you find.

https://www.dugasengineering.com

Yeah there wasnt enough business anymore to support the extra e-commerce site. So just go to DugasEngineering.com for help.